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Well, they have lower numbers of confirmed cases, but they have a higher death rate than some countries. As an example, Norway has registered 3 times as many c

Well, they have lower numbers of confirmed cases, but they have a higher death rate than some countries. As an example, Norway has registered 3 times as many cases, but fewer deaths. And while Norway, especially Oslo, has had strong lockdowns, they were nowhere near as onerous as what Melbourne and Sidney have gone through. Australia bought themselves time, but squandered it rather than ensuring that as many people as possible were vaccinated.

roenxi 5y ago
Squandered is not really an appropriate take. Australia's cases are just about to leave triple digits daily and we've already got 30% of the country vaccinated, and most people have been given at least a first dose. This is an enviable position, the edge is going to be taken right off when the case numbers are get high. And the elderly have nearly finished with the vaccination campaign. And we were struggling to lay hands on the vaccine a few months ago. Supplies were going to countries that honestly needed it more than Australia (cough India cough).
clouddrover 5y ago
> Well, they have lower numbers of confirmed cases, but they have a higher death rate than some countries. As an example, Norway has registered 3 times as many cases, but fewer deaths. Norway's population is 5,469,887. Australia's population is 25,839,176. Norway's covid deaths per million is 149. Australia's covid deaths per million is 38. Australia's doing much better than Norway.
- kwhitefoot 5y ago
  Our, Norway's, economy has already recovered to pre-COVID levels. We have never needed a lock down. We expect to have 95% of the eligible over 18s fully vaccinated before the end of October. We have never been forbidden from travelling abroad, just advised against, always been able to return. Now that I am fully vaccinated I can return without having to quarantine, without tests, I don't even have to fill in a passenger locator form. We have never had any violent protests, or violent reactions to protests, about COVID restrictions. > Australia's doing much better than Norway. It seems to me that reducing performance to a single dimension is counter productive both literally in GDP terms and qualitatively on a personal level.
  - clouddrover 5y ago
    > We have never needed a lock down. You chose not to. That's why your deaths per population is four times higher than Australia's.
    - tonyarkles 5y ago
      And yet, Canada did do lockdowns and is around 4.7x worse than Norway. Plus the gov’t spent $240 billion by Dec 2020; a significant part of which ($80B) was the unemployment program introduced so that people didn’t go broke when they couldn’t work. The retrospective studies on all of this across different countries is going to be really interesting.

roenxi 5y ago

Squandered is not really an appropriate take. Australia's cases are just about to leave triple digits daily and we've already got 30% of the country vaccinated, and most people have been given at least a first dose. This is an enviable position, the edge is going to be taken right off when the case numbers are get high. And the elderly have nearly finished with the vaccination campaign. And we were struggling to lay hands on the vaccine a few months ago. Supplies were going to countries that honestly needed it more than Australia (cough India cough).

clouddrover 5y ago

> Well, they have lower numbers of confirmed cases, but they have a higher death rate than some countries. As an example, Norway has registered 3 times as many cases, but fewer deaths. Norway's population is 5,469,887. Australia's population is 25,839,176. Norway's covid deaths per million is 149. Australia's covid deaths per million is 38. Australia's doing much better than Norway.

kwhitefoot 5y ago
Our, Norway's, economy has already recovered to pre-COVID levels. We have never needed a lock down. We expect to have 95% of the eligible over 18s fully vaccinated before the end of October. We have never been forbidden from travelling abroad, just advised against, always been able to return. Now that I am fully vaccinated I can return without having to quarantine, without tests, I don't even have to fill in a passenger locator form. We have never had any violent protests, or violent reactions to protests, about COVID restrictions. > Australia's doing much better than Norway. It seems to me that reducing performance to a single dimension is counter productive both literally in GDP terms and qualitatively on a personal level.
- clouddrover 5y ago
  > We have never needed a lock down. You chose not to. That's why your deaths per population is four times higher than Australia's.
  - tonyarkles 5y ago
    And yet, Canada did do lockdowns and is around 4.7x worse than Norway. Plus the gov’t spent $240 billion by Dec 2020; a significant part of which ($80B) was the unemployment program introduced so that people didn’t go broke when they couldn’t work. The retrospective studies on all of this across different countries is going to be really interesting.